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Russian Central Bank (our financial authority) have done exactly that. The so called Faster Payments System (Система Быстрых Платежей), launched last year, off
by leosarev 7y ago
Russian Central Bank (our financial authority) have done exactly that.
The so called Faster Payments System (Система Быстрых Платежей), launched last year, offers instant money transfers in Russia for 0.05-6 rubles (≈$0.01-0.1). Your bank can charge you on top of that, but i.e. in my bank it totally free (subsidized by other services).
Now (since autumn) they are slowly launching payments system (it's not gained traction yet, but it's just started).
Tariff for payment system is 0.4-0.7 for retailers, split between your and retailer's bank.
Afaik, China also has something like that for for years.
I think that USA don't have something like that because political tradition forbids government to compete with established private services. I have read that Americans have to buy commercial software for filing taxes. :-) In Russia, it would be unbelievable — you just using government provided tax filing software free of charge.
- zdragnar 7y agoThe IRS had a no-compete agreement with tax software companies under the premise that simple, standard filings would be offered for free. That agreement recent expired, and since the tax software companies used scummy tactics to hide the free option, the IRS has recently indicated that it is willing to build its own platform. Personally, I would much prefer that our legislators simplified the tax code to the point that specialist preparers and software wasn't necessary, but all of the incentives around elections pretty much guarantee that won't happen.